MST3K 107 - Robot Monster
The Short Synopsis After safely returning to Earth, Cody tells the head of U.S. security about Retik’s plot to invade Earth. Meanwhile, Retik's minions need money to buy a new truck to house the super ray gun, so Retik tells them to kidnap Cody and hold him for ransom. Unable to get Cody, they kidnap his assistant Jean. The henchmen take off with her in an airplane and bail out, jamming the controls. Cody comes to the rescue in his rocket suit, and successfully rescues Jean. Retik reprimands his underling Krog for failing to carry out his mission. Krog orders his men to pull a payroll heist, which succeeds in raising the needed cash. Information Clayton Moore (better known as TV's Lone Ranger) plays the villainous turncoat Graber. The Movie Synopsis A young boy named Johnny (Gregory Moffett), who is fascinated with outer space, is on a picnic with his widowed mother (Selena Royle, as Selena Royale), older sister (Claudia Barrett), and younger sister (Pamela Paulson) when he meets a pair of archeologists (John Mylong and George Nader) exploring a nearby cave. Later, as the family sleeps, he has a dream — that the Earth has been attacked by an alien named Ro-Man, using the "calcinator death ray", and that he and his family and scientist (Nader) are the only survivors. They try to elude capture by Ro-Man (played by actor George Barrows in a gorilla suit with a space helmet that looks a lot like a diving helmet), who turns out to have some very human failings despite his computerized mentality. Several members of the family are killed, but Ro-Man is destroyed by his controllers when he decides he'd rather experience human emotions. http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll Information The film's composer Elmer Bernstein was a fairly well known film composer who created memorable scores for such films like The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, and arguably his most famous; The Great Escape. Apparently the reason he scored such a Z-Grade film as Robot Monster was due to him being black listed from Hollywood by'The House of Un-American Activities Committee' after being accused of writing reviews for a Communist newspaper. The Episode Host Segments Invention Exchange: Deep 13 goes first with their flaming whoopie cushion. Joel unveils the Cumber-Bubble Bund. Segment Two: The Bots cannot fathom the physical properties of Commando Cody and blow up. Segment Three: Joel is afraid of Ro-Tom. Segment Four: Joel discusses surrealism with the Bots. Ending Segment: The SOL crew discuss the movie while wearing garbage bags. Dr. F wonders about his experimental subject. Obscure References *''"George Nader? That's Ralph Nader's naughty brother. He wrote "Safe at Any Speed." - Joel says during the credits for Robot Monster Ralph Nader is an American political activist, most notably outspoken about automobile safety. In 1965, he wrote ''Unsafe At Any Speed. George Nader, while the star of this film, was not actually his brother, nor did he write a book called Safe At Any Speed. *''"Selena Royale? What a great movie! Wasn't Woody Allen in that?" ''-Joel says during the credits for Robot Monster Joel is referring to the 1967 version of Casino Royale, a James Bond spoof that featured a young Woody Allen as Bond's nephew and head of SMERSH. *''"Lookin' through the knothole in Grandma's wooden leg."''-Sung by Joel whenever we see Ro-Man lumbering around on the hillside. From an old children's folk song. "Looking through the knothole in Grandma's wooden leg/ Who'll wind the clock up when I'm gone/ Go get the axe, there's a flea in Susie's ear/ And a boy's best friend is his mother." *''"It's Miller Day!"''-Says Crow T. Robot upon a close-up shot of a wristwatch wearing actor soldering electronic circuits. This is a reference to the Miller Genuine Draft "It's Miller Time!" ad campaign of the 1980's. *''"But the hills are alive with...weird music." ''-Crow, as Ro-Man hikes through rough terrain as a strange soundtrack plays Refers to the title song from The Sound of Music, a Broadway musical and film. *''"Armageddon married in the mornin'."'' -Tim during the marriage scene in reply to Joel's comment that it's an "Armaggedon weddin'." This is a reference to the song "Get Me to the Church On Time" from My Fair Lady, a Broadway musical, which contains the line "I'm gettin' married in the mornin', Ding dong, the bells are gonna chime!" *''"One-punch Larry."'' -Crow nicknames Roy this after he is hit by Ro-Man. One-Punch Larry was a nickname of Larry Lowenstein, a publicist and agent. According to his autobiography, he gained the nickname after scaring off a bigger kid by punching him once while defending a smaller boy. *''"I got the girl! I got the girl! Oh happy day! I will love her and pet her and hug her and squeeze her and I will call her Georgette."'' -Tom Servo as Ro-Man walks away with the captured Alice after fighting Roy. This is a reference inside a reference. The line is based on one by Hugo, the Abominable Snowman, a character from a Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoon, who said: "My own little bunny rabbit! I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him," after catching Daffy. Hugo was a reference to Lennie, from Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, whose guardian was named George. Video release *Released by Shout! Factory in November 2010 on Vol. XIX with Bride of the Monster, Devil Doll and Devil Fish. Category:MST3K Episodes Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes with shorts Category:James Bond spoofs